Bo Jackson Delivers Startling Proclamation About Football And Concussions

SportsGrid Staff 02:28 pm, January 13th, 2017

In today's NFL, football and concussions are synonymous.

However, head trauma suffered in the game has only in recent years been scientifically linked to severe mental health consequences for athletes later in life.

It took the unfortunate deaths of players like Junior Seau to make the connection between concussions and the mental health issues that could plague players later on as a result.

Another iconic player from Seau's era former running back Bo Jackson said he would have never played football had he known about the link between hits to the head and CTE (chronic traumatic encelphalopathy).

Jackson took his anti-concussion stance a step further when he proclaimed that he would never let any of his kids play football.

"The game has gotten so violent, so rough. We're so much more educated on this CTE stuff, there's no way I would ever allow my kids to play football today," Jackson said to USA Today. "Even though I love the sport, I'd smack them in the mouth if they said they wanted to play football. I'd tell them, 'Play baseball, basketball, soccer, golf, just anything but football.' "

Fans have seen a recent trend of current NFL stars, such as the 49ers Chris Borland, retiring before 30 years old in light of the new information about head injuries.

But the anti-concussion stance has even more more weight coming from Jackson - one of the most iconic athletes in history because of his dual stardom in football and baseball - and should resonate more with both fans and the NFL.